A Stray Shinma
by MistyWing
Summary: Shiina was a wandering Shinma before she made a new friend. Her first friend was not Miyu, but when she does meet the young guardian, Shiina chooses a path.


**Disclaimer: Vampire Princess Miyu does not belong to me. All rights reserved to to her owner(s)/creator(s)  
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**A Stray Shinma  
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**By: MistyWing **

**Flashback 1:**

_The storm would not let up as it lashed out at the wheat field. A pink bunny-like creature swayed in the gust as the torrential blizzard slashed at its face. _

_"HMMMMMMMM!" It squealed in terror as it tried to hold its ground._

_"Hey!" A distant voice cried from the east._

_The bunny-like creature blinked one eye, the eye that was not covered by one ear. It was the ruby eye that saw the physical, the solid, and the seen things. The other eye, covered by one long ear, saw the faraway, the abstract, and much more. _

_"Hey!" Someone cried from the east again. The bunny-like creature was frozen to its spot in the ground._

_"Oh no!" the voice was close, now. "You're freezing. I'll take you home." _

_It was a farm boy, who helped out his family on the farm. He was just coming home from school when he found the creature. He quickly gathered the pink bundle in his arms and tried his best to shield it from the biting cold._

_"It's okay, now. I'm taking you home." _

_The creature winked at him oddly._

_He laughed. Then, he pulled it closer and ran the rest of his way to his house._

_Inside, the creature hopped out of his arms and unfroze immediately._

_"Cool! You're okay! I thought you were going to be sick." He laughed again. _

_The creature looked at him as it studied him motionlessly._

_"Hey, don't worry, little buddy. I'm going to take care of you. What's your name?"_

_The creature remained stonily still._

_"I'm Shiro. And you must be…" His forehead wrinkled as he drew into deep thought. "You must be Shiina."_

_

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**Flashback 2:**

_Shiro was not allowed to have pets in his house. He was in lots of trouble when his family discovered he hid an animal in the house. His uncle was the angriest._

_"Shiro! What is that?" Questioned his livid uncle._

_"It's my friend. He's really good. I brought him home in one of the storms. It could have died if I did not take it in," Shiro cried in defense. He shielded Shiina in his protective arms. "I'm not letting you take her away!"_

_A loud smack landed on the boy's cheek. Shiina flew out of his arms. His uncle took the creature by one of its loose ears. "This thing is out or you are!" He threw open the window and was about to throw Shiina out, but the boy clung onto his uncle's arm._

_"No!" He cried. "I'll take her out. I promise!"_

_"Shiro, you better." He pushed the boy back gently and threw Shiina back to him. "Get rid of it, now."_

_Shiro high-tailed out of the house and ran a great distance. _

_Once they were about five hundred yards away from the house he let out a deep breath. "I'm sorry, Shiina. He's really a good man. You do not normally see Uncle like that unless he is very angry." He smiled, but it disappeared immediately. He started crying. "I'm sorry, Shiina. You can't stay in the house. If Uncle finds out, he might hurt you. You're my best friend. I can't let that happen, Shiina."_

_Shiina looked at him with its ruby eye. _

_"What should I do, Shiina?" Shiro fell in a heap on the dirt and sobbed. Shiina jumped on his back and rubbed it with its soft paws._

_"I know!" He exclaimed as he sat up after crying for a minute. "You can stay in the barn, but you got to make sure you stay in hiding whenever my uncle is around. And don't scare the sheep and cows, okay?" _

_Shiina nodded and closed its red eye in joy. It would do anything to stay with him._

_

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**Flashback 3:**

_"Shiro, what do you have for show-and-tell today?" Asked the teacher._

_"Oh, I brought my best friend to school with me," Shiro said as he jumped out of his seat and hurried to the front._

_"What kind of friend?"_

_"Shiina!" Shiro cried. Right on cue, Shiina jumped out of Shiro's desk and bounded towards the front as well._

_"Guys, this is my best friend Shiina. I think it's a bunny, but I'm not sure. He must be a unique breed of bunny because there's one unique thing about him…"_

_"Why is it always covering one of its eyes?" Asked a boy in the front._

_"Well, that's the thing…"_

_"I want to see the other eye!" The boy hollered as he jumped at Shiina. His grimy hand forced Shiina's ear up._

_A round, yellow, blood shot eye stared back at the boy. Slowly a low, hollow scream erupted from his throat. A whole wave of students ran to the back of the room. Even the teacher hurried out of her desk to the back as she pointed a shaking finger at Shiro._

_"What creature have you brought to this school, Shiro? It's… It's… It's disgusting!"_

_Shiro jumped in front of Shiina and tried his best to shut it out from disdainful eyes. "She is not! She is my best friend! She is special. Don't say that about my best friend!"_

_Shiro scooped Shiina into his arms and ran out of the school building._

_"Yes, get rid of it. Get rid of it!" The teacher called after him._

_

* * *

_

The fire loomed over the foundations of the last and only home that Shiro ever knew. Tears streamed down his face as he stared at the blaze. He whispered each family members name as their spirits drifted into the dark, murky sky.

His last friend, Shiina, stood by his side as the both of them watched the supernatural flames. Shiro had run all the way home from school when he heard about the fire, but he was too late. He was now on his knees, panting and sobbing. The only family he had left was gone.

In a far off distance the sound of a flute being played drifted into Shiina's perked up ears. Shiro probably did not hear because he was still bent over in the dirt.

"Everyone I ever loved… Gone…" Shiro wailed into the dirt that muffled his voice.

Shiina looked from Shiro to the distance where the flute was being played. Tensed, Shiina turned from the boy and chased the music.

Shiina's red eye slanted in fury as it saw the distant figure playing the flute on a molehill. The figure on the molehill was a girl, with her back turned to Shiina. She paused and the world froze except for her. The red ribbon in her braid untwined from her hair and fluttered in the air. The music stopped and her arms came down slightly. She turned slowly and fixed her golden eyes on Shiina.

"You are not the one…" Her low, quiet voice reached Shiina's ears.

"You… You aren't the one responsible…" Shiina spoke, as its eye remained slanted in suspicious anger. Shiina did not recognize the girl as the culprit, who burned down the house.

"It seems we are both after the same thing," she said. She nimbly jumped off the molehill and landed next to Shiina. "I have been watching you lately. You probably wonder why I have not sealed you."

"I know you have been watching me, but I do not care why you have not sealed me."

"Stray Shinma, I am the guardian and I send creatures like you back into the darkness. This fire was created by one, which feeds on the hearts of mankind until they die. You are one of them, so now I expect an explanation from you. Why have you kept the boy so close to you? Why do you protect him?"

"I will protect him because he protects me."

"Shinma and man cannot belong together."

"He is not completely human. His mother was mortal, but his father was one of us."

The guardian smiled, "You don't have to tell me, Shinma. I know that story, too."

His ear stiffened. "My name is Shiina!"

"Shiina…" She smiled slowly as she stared at the pink creature. "I'm Miyu."

"Miyu? The guardian has a name?"

"I will find the one who has hurt your friend." She said, ignoring its question.

"No, I will. My eye sees everything," Shiina said hastily.

"Is that so? Well… While I hunt, you better not cause any trouble or I will seal you, Shin… Shiina…" Miyu spoke with a wide smirk stretching her pale face. "Be good."

Shiina's ruby eye widened as it watched Miyu disappear into the foggy air. Bells jingled with her departure until even the shadow of her, faded into the mist. Shiina opened its other eye and realized that it could still see Miyu even in the distant fog.

* * *

Shiro was sent to an orphanage. Shiina remained faithful and followed him there. But after a few days their life together on Earth ended. 

_"Bad luck"_

_"Cursed"_

_"Calamity"_

_"Misfortune"_

The things the people in town said about him killed him. He ran away from the orphanage, feeling guilty and miserable because everyone knew that all his family died because he was with them. First his parents. Then, his grandparents. And after them, his uncle, aunt, and cousins. He killed them all because he was the bad luck, the curse, the calamity, and the misfortune.

As Shiro ran in the darkness, away from civilization, Shiina awoke with a start. Shiina was still in the warm bed that it shared with Shiro while its striking eye searched the night through the window. Shiina's eye fell on something that tailed Shiro in the darkness like a shadow. Alert, Shiina jumped out of bed and followed them.

Once Shiina reached them it was too late. Shiro's lifeless body laid pale in the red moonlight. The shadow towering over Shiro's prone body turned to Shiina. Terrified, Shiina popped both ears up and stared back at the creature. Before Shiina knew it, the shadow bounded towards it like a snake in the air.

"Shiina!" The voice of Miyu shouted out. Immediately, Shiina dodged left as a fire ball deflected off the shadow and evaporated. Miyu, who appeared on the other side of the Shinma, cried out in surprise when she noticed fire coming back at her. Somehow, the Shinma had absorbed her power and was now using it against her.

"Shiina, get away!" Miyu shouted in warning as she threw another flame that negated the Shinma's similar attack.

"Away! This battle is not yours."

"It isn't yours either!" Shiina retorted.

"Shiina! I will seal you too, if you do not get away."

"But…"

"Shiro is gone. Now go!" Miyu jumped before the Shinma's flame reached her. It singed the edge of her knee-length robe and as a result she faltered.

Shiina jumped into a nearby bush and continued to survey the battle. _Shiro was gone. The poor kid was killed by the humans because they could not accept him. Humans…_

Miyu jumped into the air and fired her powers at the tree behind the Shinma. The shadow turned to the burning tree and laughed. Her attack had completely missed the target, or so it seemed. However, just as it turned back to face Miyu, she chanted, "To the darkness with you, Stray Shinma!" A spiral of fire spread from her left palm. Once the flame engulfed the Shinma, a howl of pain rung through the eerie night. The shadow dissipated into nothingness as Miyu floated back down to Earth. Her bare feet touched the floor and everything became silently still.

In an instant, Shiina was at Shiro's side.

_Humans did this to him. He could have been safe. He could have been happy with only Shiina, but humans took it away from him. Insolent humans with no idea…_

"I could give him eternal happiness. You would like him to have that, wouldn't you Shiina?"

Shiina turned and glared up at Miyu. "I always wanted that very much!"

Miyu nodded as she raised her palm up. "May you live in eternal happiness and have the most pleasant dreams forever, Shiro." A flame ignited in her hand and she dropped it on the body.

It seemed like hours past as they watched Shiro's body burn away.

"Humans did it to him. He died because they killed him."

"Yet, my destiny effects their lives," Miyu added.

"Legend states, you protect them… Why do you protect them?"

She grinned down at it. "I give them what I can give and what they deserve… Shinma, too. That is my destiny."

"That doesn't answer my question."

"Would you like to be sealed as well?"

"You're cruel."

Miyu bent down and stroked Shiina's head. "You're very special and Shiro will never forget you. I hope you never forget about Shiro."

"Never…" Shiina closed its eyes even the one under his ear. "Are you going to seal me now?"

"How many times do I have to tell you? Shinma and humans cannot belong. You will not see Shiro in the darkness with you."

"I thought you would seal me if I caused trouble. Didn't I cause trouble back there? The Shinma singed your robe because I distracted you."

"No, Shiina. I do not want to seal you."

"Then, what will you do? I'm a stray. I am one of them."

"I am, too," Miyu charged on. "I am, too and so are you. But you are different, Shiina. And for that I will not seal you." Miyu flapped the ear that hid its eye before she stood to go.

"Can I follow you?" Shiina asked abruptly just as she was about to leave.

Miyu stopped and stared down at Shiina in surprise. "Your ability could be an asset to us."

"'Us?'"

"Larva," Miyu called into the night as she continued to eye the pink Shinma.

Another Shinma in a black robe, wearing a white mask appeared beside her. He removed his mask and acknowledged Shiina through passive red eyes.

"This is our new friend, Shiina."

The western Shinma twitched a bit at the 'friend' part. "I know," he said frankly.

"So, I can follow you?" Shiina asked hopefully.

Miyu smiled again. "It might be for forever."

"Might?"

"If I decide to runaway from Destiny, you won't have to stay with me forever."

"Runaway?"

"Larva will help me runaway when that day comes…"

"Larva?"

"That's another story, Little One."

"Alright… It doesn't matter. I will follow you wherever you go!"

"Why do you want to?"

"Because you are the only one left. I want to protect someone I care about."

"You can't do much in battle, Shiina."

"Then, I just want to be beside you when you're not sealing bad Shinma away. I want the promise of being by your side and knowing you are safe every time you come back from a fight. I shall be another companion."

"It might be forever."

"Might."

Miyu sighed. "Make sure you stay out of trouble, okay? Don't make me seal you."

"Wherever you go, I will go," Shiina promised.

Miyu turned to Shiina sharply.

_A new_ _Friend_

**END**

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MistyWing: Took me a month to write this... I wasn't sure where I was getting at when I first wrote it, but now I don't think it's too bad. I had to pick it up at a point where I got so confused I almost abandoned it! Glad I didn't. I really wanted to write about how Miyu met Shiina and how Shiina joined up. Now that I have, my satisfaction has been fulfilled. I hope everyone enjoyed it. Her relationship with shiina is not as well developed as her and Larva's. Well, that's because it could still use a little work. All my work can still use a little work...

I might be starting a story about Larva and Miyu, but it's going to be an alternate reality. **  
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